Last night, former Greek Finance Minister and Minister of Defense Dr. Yannos Papantoniou spoke to a crowd of over 60 Tufts students about current instability in Southeastern Europe and the future of the Balkans.
The event, held in the Braker Hall auditorium, was co-organized by the Economics Society and the European Club.
Papantoniou, appointed finance minister in 1993 and minister of defense in 2001, began his speech with a historical background on the Balkan countries, which emerged, along with other Eastern European countries, as a result of the end of the Cold War.
Most of these newly formed countries received heavy financial aid or investment from Western European countries, but such was not the case for Yugoslavia, Albania and other Balkan countries.
As a result, Papantoniou said, "Greece faced a huge influx of immigrants, but unlike the United States, Greece does not have a custom of absorbing [such a large number of people]."
Regardless, Papantoniou said that the Greeks chose to integrate these people into their economic, political and social systems, a strategy that he said has historically been successful in dealing with immigration influxes.
Before addressing the region's current instability, he described the challenges that arose from the end of the Cold War.
"New states had to be created, which is always a dangerous exercise, as it might create an even larger climate of instability," Papantoniou said.
While Greece and the United States opposed the dissolution of former Yugoslavia, strong support within the European Union (EU) eventually began the process of breaking the country apart into smaller states in the early 1990s.
The dissolution, Papantoniou said, will probably be complete later in 2006, when Kosovo and Montenegro hold elections to determine their independence.
He said that in order to become prosperous states, the Balkan countries must find a way to integrate themselves into NATO and the EU. Doing so, he added, would likely necessitate major economic and political reforms for the countries involved.
Papantoniou said that criteria for entry into the EU are much more severe than those for entering NATO.
Unlike NATO, the EU requires an entering country to have not only a functional market economy but to meet human rights and democratic requirements.
NATO has devised a plan to encourage countries to continue to improve their political and economic climates by creating a "half-way point."
Through this provision, countries may experience certain NATO benefits without becoming full members.
In the EU, however, "popular opinion is moving away from enlargement, because there is a fear of competition from low wage countries and having capital transferred to [poorer] countries," Papantoniou said.
"No one claims that the Balkan countries can't join the EU, but there is no great eagerness to accept them," he said.
Papantoniou then mentioned that Turkey, another country aspiring to become a EU member, faces two additional problems.
"Turkey ... is a country with 70 million citizens and a high birth rate, which could radically alter the balance of political and economic power in the EU," Papantoniou said.
Papantoniou said that Turkey is the cause of another divergence in opinion between the EU and the United States, which is in favor of Turkish membership to the EU because of Turkey's geopolitical importance.
Papantoniou concluded his speech by discussing the future of both the Balkan nations and Turkey, emphasizing the importance of keeping the prospects of EU membership alive for all the countries involved, as it "forms a basic motivation to modernize their society and to progress into the modern world."
While he said that he finds it difficult to conceive a situation in which the EU will deny the Balkan states membership, Papantoniou said that he was pessimistic about Turkey's chances.
He warned that neglecting countries in that region of the world could be a very costly mistake, mentioning the genocide that occurred in the Balkans in the 1990s. He then advocated for the creation of a "halfway house" plan - similar to NATO's - to "house the countries there for as long as it takes for them to fulfill the criteria of entry into the EU."
